Comment 56382

By Borrelli (registered) | Posted January 14, 2011 at 15:08:06

@ GrapeApe

A good poll will include a set number of callbacks as part of the sampling design. This is to try to mitigate any non-response bias. Calls will ideally come at different times and days in order to avoid missing out on respondents who cannot pick-up the first call.

As to Pollstra, I've never heard of them before, but I don't know that there's any worry about the validity of the results. Honestly, it's so easy to run a phone poll these days that you don't even really need a polling company--they just exist to lend some credibility to the studies, and to help people that don't know what they're doing. There are enough call-center/phone-farms out there that if you've taken a course in survey design, you can design the poll yourself and essentially outsource all the calling--in fact, I bet you that's what Pollstra does.

EDIT: Actually, I lose the bet/I'm wrong. According to their website, Pollstra says:

"We have three offices with two located in Hamilton, Ontario and one office in Palo Alto California. Our Hamilton mountain location is dedicated to Pollstra Research, with a 30 seat in-house call centre attached. Our Stoney Creek location hosts our support staff for our partner companies. We have a satellite office in the Palo Alto Business Centre in California. This dedicated suite provides us ample space to serve our US client's needs."

Comment edited by Borrelli on 2011-01-14 15:10:51

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